Kevin Killian (December 24, 1952 – June 15, 2019) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, editor, and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, primarily of

LGBT literature LGBTQ literature may refer to: * Lesbian literature * Gay literature * Bisexual literature * Transgender literature * Intersex literature * Or any other literature featuring the LGBTQ community By country * LGBTQ literature in Argentina * ...

. ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with

Peter Gizzi Peter Gizzi (born 1959 in Alma, Michigan) is an American poet, essayist, editor and teacher. He attended New York University, Brown University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. Life Gizzi was born in Alma, Michigan to an Italian ...

, won the

American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...

for Poetry in 2009. Killian was also co-founder of the Poets Theater, an influential poetry, stage, and performance group based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, as well as the New Narrative movement in San Francisco, which included figures like Robert Glück, Bruce Boone,

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that deal ...

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...

, and more.Pohl, R.D. "Poets Theater at Burchfield Penney Art Center." ''Buffalo News.'' April 2, 2009.

Life and career

Kevin Killian was born on December 24, 1952, in

Smithtown, New York Smithtown is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. The population was 116,296 at the 2020 United ...

. He was raised

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and attended a Roman Catholic

parochial school A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...

run by

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friars. He discussed these experiences in an essay in the edited work ''Wrestling with the Angel''. He was also the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

spelling bee A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite ...

champion. He attended

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

and graduate school at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

in the 1970s. Killian moved to San Francisco in 1980. A year later in 1981, he met fellow author Dodie Bellamy. The couple, both

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, were married for 34 years. Killian admired the work of JT LeRoy (later to be revealed as the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

and

persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

of author

Laura Albert Laura Victoria Albert (born November 2, 1965) is an American author who invented the literary persona JT LeRoy, whom Albert described as an "avatar." She published various works of purportedly autobiographical fiction under the LeRoy name be ...

), and held public readings of LeRoy's work in 2000. As a beginning novelist, Killian tied for first place in the "Hamming Up Hammett"

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

bad-writing contest in

in 1988. Author Dodie Bellamy featured him as a partially fictional character in her

vampire novel Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publicat ...

''The Letters of Mina Harker''. His poetry has appeared in the anthology '' The Best American Poetry 1988'', the magazine ''Discontents'', and the anthology ''Good Times: Bad Trips''. Killian once based a volume of poetry on the work of

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

director

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. His influential work in the horror film, horror and giallo genres during the 1970s and 1980s has led him to being referred to as the "Master of the ...

(motivated to do so as a response to the

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

epidemic). Killian also helped author Alvin Orloff polish chapters of his novel ''Gutterboys''. Noted author

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (January 13, 1940 – June 3, 2025) was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. A pioneering figure in LGBTQ and especially gay literature after the Stonewall riots, he wrote with ra ...

described his work as "a kind of mandarin American casualness that is peculiar to … West Coast writers … a school of refined but deceptively offhand stylists." ''The Village Voice'' called ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with

, "impeccably edited"."The Best Books of 2008." ''The Village Voice.'' December 10, 2008. The work was also highly praised by ''The New York Times.'' Killian's 2009 collection of short gay erotic fiction ''Impossible Princess'' won the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

for

Gay Erotica Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males with the primary goal to sexually arouse its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; which at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake po ...

. The first story in the collection, "Young Hank Williams", was written with Canadian cult writer Derek McCormack. The collection was inspired by

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...

's album of the same name and, in turn, it inspired

Conrad Tao Conrad Yiwen Tao (born June 11, 1994) is an American composer and pianist and former violinist. Tao's piano and violin performances since childhood brought him early recognition at music festivals and competitions. At age 13, he was featured on ...

's piano composition "All I Had Forgotten or Tried To". Killian was founder and former director of

Small Press Traffic Small means of insignificant size. Small may also refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text Arts and ...

. He also edited the

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

''Mirage''. Killian died from cancer on June 15, 2019.

Poets Theater and retrospective work

Killian's interest in theatre emerged in the early 1980s when he saw experimental plays by Carla Harryman.Cook, David. "The Poets Theater Jubilee Brings Verse to the Stage." ''SF Weekly.'' January 23, 2002. Harryman and Tom Mandel subsequently cast him in their play ''Fist of the Colossus''.Sullivan, Gary. "Kevin Killian: Interview." ''readme.'' Spring/Summer 2001.
Accessed 2010-05-29. He co-founded the Poets Theater in San Francisco, and acted in as well as wrote pieces for the group. As of 2001, he had written 31 plays. He co-authored the

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

piece ''The Red and the Green'' in 2005 with cinematographer Karla Milosevich. In 2009, Killian and David Brazil co-edited a collection of Poets Theater pieces, ''The Kenning Anthology of Poets Theatre: 1945–1985.'' Killian was also active in bringing attention to important LGBTQ artists and writers of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He held poetry readings of a wide number of influential poets and writers and participated in a number of panels, art installations, retrospectives, and memorials. For example, in 2008 he was a featured speaker at a

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

"Poetry of the 1970s" conference. He and artist Colter Jacobsen also helped organize a tribute ("Kiki: The Proof Is in the Pudding") to the Kiki Gallery, an influential art gallery in San Francisco in the 1980s that featured the work of LGBTQ artists.Vogel, Tracy. "The Anger and the Ecstasy of Kiki Revisited." ''SF Weekly.'' July 9, 2008.

Published works

Story and poetry collections

* * * * * * * * ''Selected Amazon Reviews''. Semiotext(e) / Native Agents. 2024. .

Novels

* * * *

Biographies

*''Poet Be Like God'' (co-written with Lewis Ellingham;

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...

, 1998)

Edited works

*''The Wild Creatures'' by Sam D'Allesandro (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005) *''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' (co-edited with Peter Gizzi; Wesleyan University Press, 2008) *''The Kenning Anthology of Poets Theater: 1945-1985'' (co-edited with David Brazil; Kenning Editions, 2010) *''Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative Writing 1977-1997'' (co-edited with Dodie Bellamy; Nightboat Books, 2017)

Plays

*''Stone Marmalade'' (co-written with Leslie Scalapino; Singing Horse Press, 1996) *''Often'' (co-written with Barbara Guest; Kenning Editions, 2001) *''Island of Lost Souls'' (Nomados, 2004)

References

External links

Links to online works by Kevin Killian
* Kevin Killian and Dodie Bellamy Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Killian, Kevin 1952 births 2019 deaths People from Smithtown, New York Writers from New York (state) Writers from San Francisco Lambda Literary Award winners American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American LGBTQ poets American LGBTQ novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American poets American male poets American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners American Book Award winners 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers California College of the Arts faculty LGBTQ people from New York (state) American bisexual writers